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UN 24 1895 



The First Discovered 
City of Cibola 



F. W. HODGE 



From The Amkrican Anthropologist, Vol. VIII, No. 2, April, 1895 



WASHINGTON 
JUDD & DETWEIIvER, PRINTERS 

I«95 










■J: 



THE FIRST DISCOVERED CITY OF CIBOLA 

BY F. W. HODGE 

Through tlic labors of i\Ir. Adolf F. Bandelier* it has become 
(;[uite definitely estal)lished that the region now known as Ari- 
zona was first visited by whites in the middle of the year 1538, 
when Fray Pedro Nadal and Fray Juan de la Asuncion (or de 
Olmeda) penetrated the southern part of that territory. There 
the friars learned that to the northward were many-storied 
pueblos inhabited by people who wore clothing and possessed 
an abundance of turkis. This was probably the first news of the 
Pueblo Indians to reach Mexico, for although Nuiio de Guzman 
about nine years previously (in 1529) heard of the existence of 
" seven towns " in the northern country, it is possible that the 
subsequently discovered " Seven Cities of Cibola " were quite dis- 
tinct from these. Indeed, mention of a suppositional group of 
" seven caves " in the new country Avas made soon after the 
Columbian discovery, while a legend of seven cities originated 
in the Old World as early as the ninth century, was imported to 
the New, and coincidently found its realization in the so called 
Seven Cities of Cibola. 

In September, 1538, or very shortly after the return to the 
City of Mexico of the two monks above mentioned, Marcos de 
Niza, a Franciscan friar, set out from the capital under authorit}^ 
and instruction from Antonio de Mendoza, then viceroy of New 
Spain, to explore the inhabited region of the far north. There 
accompanied Niza, as guide, a negro named Estevan or JCste- 
vanico, who had been a companion of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de 
Vaca, Andrez Dorantes, and Alonzo de Castillo ISIaldonado. 
These four survivors of the ill-fated expedition of Narvaez, 
which about 1529 was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico west of 
the Mississippi delta, found their way to the Mexican capital 
after seven years' wandering and untold suffering. 

* Contributions to the History of the Southwestern Portion of the United States: Arch. 
Inst. Papers, v, 1890. Documentary History of the Zuni Tribe, in Jour. Am. Ktliiiol. Mtid 
Arch., eiliied )>y ,T. Walter FcwUos, iii, 1892. 



2 
1 

Tlie story of Niza's journey has been more than twice told ; 
hence it is not necessary to repeat it in detail here.* The negro 
was sent in advance with a number of Indians, who were joined 
by others as they proceeded on their journey. While among 
the Opatas of Sonora, Estevan sent to Niza the first information 
regarding Cibola ; and as the friar hastened onward, being hospi- 
tably received by the Piman natives, through whose territory 
he was now traveling, the news of the po})ulous and wealthy 
nations of the north received through runners sent by the negro 
grew more and more jjromising. The so-called dcspoblado, now 
covered in part by the White Mountain Apache reservation, was 
soon crossed, but when within two or three days' journey of 
Cibola the friar was astonished at meeting one of the Indians 
who had accompanied Estevan and learning from him that tlie 
negro and a number of his Indian companions had been killed 
by the Cibolans, and that those who had escaped were fleeing 
for their lives. 

It is not necessary to enter into details concerning the death 
of Estevan, nor to relate the causes which led to it. Friar Marcos 
held a parley witli his natives, hoping to induce them to accom- 
pany him to Cibola, but they were so overcome by fear as well 
as so incensed at the death of their kinsmen, for which tiiey 
held Niza responsible, that they not only refused to accompany 
him, but threatened his life. The judicious distril^ution of some 
articles which Fray Marcos had brought with him, however, dis- 
suaded the Indians from executing their threats, and he even 
finally succeeded in inducing them to continue the journey ; but 
when within a day's travel of the first village they encountered 
two more fugitives from Cibola, sorely frightened and covered 
with blood. The sight of the wounded and abject Indians re- 
new^ed the anguisli of their brethren and it took Niza a long time 
to soothe them. 

Himself threatened with death by his Indian comj)anions, tiic 
friar had no hoi)e of entering Cibola, yet he was bent on obeying 
the orders of the viceroy, if his life should be spared, b}^ at least 
looking upon the town. At last, accompanied by his own Indians 

♦For fuller accounts see Banclelier, op. cit. ; also his "Disco^ter;/ of New Mexico by 
Fray Marcos of Nizza," iu Mag. Western History, September, 1880. Early Explorations 
of New Mexico, by Henry W. Haynes, in Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am , vol. ii, ohnp. 
vii. W. W. H. Davis, Spanish Conquest of New Mexico. Reference to orif^innl dotui- 
ments are given in these treatises. 



and two chiefs of the tribe* whose people had been killed with 
Estevan, the obedient Niza made his way to the heights over- 
looking one of the towns. Here he erected a small cross, form- 
ally took possession of the country, and hastened back to Mexico. 
Upon his arrival he submitted to tlic viceroy a narrative of his 
exploits. 

Careful attention was apparently not given by the officials to 
Niza's relacion, for there was a notable lack of discrimination be- 
tween the record of his personal observations and of the stories 
which were communicated to him by the Indians whom he 
encountered concerning the country and its wonderful riches. 
Consequently, when Coronado and his army, guided by Niza, in 
the following year found that Cibola comprised several villages 
of stone and mud, wdth no gold or other metals, their disap|)oint- 
ment knew no bounds, and the anger of the soldiers and the 
maledictions they uttered against the defenseless friar are men- 
tioned by both Coronado and Castaileda, neither of whom forgot 
to contribute his share of calumny. 

Mr. Bandelier has established quite satisfactorily that Niza was 
honest in his assertions, the fabrications concerning Cibola being 
recorded by the friar as having come to him through hearsay. 

It is regarding the identity of the village at which Estevan lost 
his life and which Niza observed from a distant height that ques- 
tion has arisen. The name of one of the Cibolan villages the friar 
learned from an old Zuili whom he found living with one of the 
Piman tribes and who had been a fugitive from Cibola for many 
years. This name was Abacus, and is identical with Hawikuh, a 
pueblo occupied by the Zunis until about 1670, when the Apaches 
compelled its abandonment. It should be remembered, however, 
that the name Abacus was not applied by Niza to the pueblo 
visited by Estevan and seen by himself, nor indeed to any other 
pueblo; hence the question as to which of the cities of ('ibola 
was first discovered. 

The place of the killing of the " Black Mexican " is fixed by 
Zuiii tradition at K'iakima, and this tradition Mr. Bandelier 
has attempted to substantiate by applying thereto the descrip- 
tion b}^ Niza as well as by other documentary testimony bearing 
on the point. It is my j)urpose to show that not K'iakima but 

* Probably the Sobaipuri Papagos. 



Miiwikuh was the town of Cibola discovei-ed l)y Niza, that the 
latter vilhige alone correrfpouds substantially with the settle- 
ment described by the friar, and that Zuni traditional accounts 
of events which occurred over three centuries ago are not worthy 
of consideration as historical or scientific evidence. 

In order that there may be no difference in terms enii)loyed I 
will recite Mr. Bandelier's own translation from the Spanish of 
the description of the Cibolan village seen by Niza when he took 
possession in the name of the King of Spain of the territory 
noAV forming Arizona and New Mexico. 

Reviewing that portion of the friar's narrative relating to his 
desire to continue onward to Cibola after the death of Estevan 
and some of his companions, Mr. Bandelier says : " His Indians 
were unwilling to accompany him. They not only resisted his 
entreaties, but threatened his life, in atonement for the lives of 
their relatives slaughtered at Cibola. He pleaded and remon- 
strated, but the}'^ remained stubborn. At last two of their num- 
ber — 'principal men,' he says — consented to lead him to a place 
whence he could see Cibola from afar. [Then quoting Niza:] 
' With them and with my Indians and interpreters I followed 
my road till we came in sight of Cibola, which lies in a plain 
on the slope of a round height. Its appearance is very good for 
a settlement, — the handsomest I have seen in these parts. The 
houses are, as the Indians had told me, all of stone, with their 
stories and flat roofs. As far as I could see from a height where 
I placed myself to observe, the settlement is larger than the city 
of Mexico.' . . . Here, again, in sight of Cibola [now con- 
tinues Bandelier], his Indian guides reiterated the statement that 
the village* now in view was the smallest one of the seven, and 
that Totonteac [Tusayan] was much more important than the so 
called Seven Cities. After taking possession of Cibola, Totonteac, 
Acus, and Marata for the Spanish crown, raising a stone lieaj), 
and placing a wooden cross on top of it with the aid of the; na- 
tives, and naming the new land the 'New Kingdom of Saint 
Francis,' the friar turned back, ' with much more tViglit than 
food,' as he very dryly but truthfully remarks.'' f 



*The statement in his OUded Man (p. 155) that Niza and his companions "at last 
reached a liill wlience they looked down into a valley in which lay several villages ' 
is an error; but one village was seen. 

t Bandelier, Contributions, op. cit , p. Kid, liil. 



The natural approach to Zuni from the south westward, the 
direction whence Niza came, is by way of Little Colorado and 
Zuni River valleys. Any other route from that direction would 
lead through a region of utter desolation, extremely difficult of 
travel by reason of its broken and arid character. The valley 
through which Zuni river flows on to the Little Colorado part 
of the year, is easy to travel, and it may be reasonably assumed 
that water was abundant at or within easy reach of the sandy 
river bed wdien Niza's little force wended its way toward Cibola 
late in May of the year 1539. To have left the valley would have 
increased the distance which the barefoot friar must traverse, 
besides leading him over an indescribably dreary and rugged 
stretch. It therefore would seem that Niza, as well as E.stevan, 
approached Ziini by the valley route over which Coronado, 
guided by Niza, went a year later — a route leading directly to 
Hawikuh, the southwesternmost of the Cibolan towns, and one of 
the two largest of the group. From the southwest K'iakima, 
which lies at the southwestern foot of Taaiyalone or Thunder 
mountain, in the eastern part of the plain, can be reached only 
by the tortuous route alluded to. Moreover, K'iakima was the 
most remote of all the Cibolan pueblos when approached from 
the southwest, Matsaki alone excepted. 

In the light of these facts, then, what would have l)een Niza's 
o])ject in visiting K'iakima, particularly when guided l)y unwill- 
ing natives, who evidently had visited Cibola before? Had he 
made a detour before reaching the vicinity of Hawikuh for the 
purpose of viewing K'iakima from the adjacent mesas, Niza 
scarcely would have used the words : " I followed my road until 
we came in sight of Cibola; "* that is, the road he was follow- 
ing ; the onli/ road.f 

The friar describes the puel)lo as lying " in a plain at the slo[)e 
of a round height.'' This is one of the most significant points in 
the narrative in favor of Hawikuh. This ruin was surveyed by 

*The term Cibola is specifically employed by Friar Marcos to designate the single 
village wliich he saw. 

t" There existed, in 15'i!), and prior to it, quite an intercourse between Zuni and the 
land-tilling aborigines south of the Gila river. Thai intercourse took the form of jour- 
neys made by the Opatas, the Southern and Northern Pimas, and possibly the Endeves 
and Jovas, to Cibola-Zuiii, for the purpose of acquiring turquoises and buffalo hides." 

Bandelier: Documentary Hist, op. cit., pp. H, 4. This being the case, there must 
have been a well-used trail for Niza to follow via Zuni valley to Hawikuh, the only prac- 
ticable route. 



iMr. Cosmos JMindelefF, and a carefully prepared ground-plan is 
reproduced in the memoir "Architecture of Tusayan and Cibola," 
b\'' Victor Mindeleff, in the eighth annual report of the Uurcau 
of Ethnology. This author describes (p. 80) the ruin of I lawiivuh 
as " occupying the point of a spur projecting from a low rounded 
hill," a description coinciding precisely with that by Niza. More- 
over, Hawikuh is so situated in a plain as to command a view 
for miles in every direction,* a situation worthy of the eiitliu- 
siasm of even the undemonstrative Niza, who describetl it as 
'• the handsomest I have seen in these parts." K'iakima, perched 
on its inconvenient knoll of talus and cowering under the pro- 
tection of old Taaiyalone,t could not have conjured up this out- 
])urst of praise from the honest old friar. 

K'iakima, it will be seen, is not in a plain. A view toward 
that pueblo from the southern heights is completely closed by 
Tiiunder mountain, which here seems to wall the very universe.;}: 
Furthermore, I am confident, through personal observation, that 
the mountain does not appear to be rountl from either the west 
or the south. 

Niza could never have been so deceived in the appearance 
of K'iakima as to have said: "Where I placed myself to ob- 
serve, the settlement is larger that the city of Mexico." Sucii a 
comparison inight truthfully have been made witli Uawikuh, 
however, situated as it was in a I)road plain, with no l)eotling 
height to behttle it.§ 

JMr. Cosmos Mindeleff, who made a careful survey and study 
of the K'iakima ruin, informs me that in all [)r(,)bability the 
houses did not exceed one story. Those of Hawikuh. in the 
language of Mr. Victor Mindeleff, considering " the large amount 
of debris and the comparative thinness of such walls as are found, 
suggest that the dwellings had been densely clustered and carried 
to the height of several stories." In this connection it is of 



♦See plates xlvii and xi.viii of tlio Mimlotett' paper referred to. Tlie ruiiiod fliurcli 
dates from about 1629. 

+ See Mindeleff, op. cit., plates i.ii and i.iii. 

tTlie view of the mountain shown in plate i,xx of Mindeleff's paper is from the west. 
K'iakima is situated near the corner at the right of the picture, Matsaki at the corner 
to the left. 

gMr. Bandelier believes that the population of the City of Mexico could not have 
exceeded 1,000 at this date. Hawikuh in 1540 numbered 200 warriors (Coronado says 
houses) or between 800 and !)00 souls. Judging from the extent of tlie ruins of K'iakima, 
its population could not liave been half as great. 



moment to observe that Niza speaks of the houses as " all of 
stone, ivith their stories and flat roofs," a reference that under the 
circumstances could not pertain to K'iakima. 

The reiteration of the Indians "that the villa^-e now in view- 
was the smallest one of the seven " I believe to have been mere 
braggadocio, and contained as much truth as their allegation 
in the same breath that Tusa^^an was much more important 
than Cibola. Any statement to the effect that the smallest 
village of the Cibolan group was larger than the City of Mexico is 
incredible.* Niza has shown himself to have been a man of 
truth. The many groundless assertions of the Indians as re- 
corded throughout this and subsequent Spanish narratives 
speak for themselves.f 

Yet the clause " the village now in view " is of the utmost im- 
portance. Indeed, if there were no other evidence that Hawi- 
kuh was the village seen by Niza this would suffice, for inas- 
much as K'iakima is visible only from the southeast and south, 
there is no point of view from these directions that would not 
include Halona;}: (the site of the present Zuni), and from any 
point farther westward along the southern eminences Matsaki 
also would have been seen. From the heights south of the plain 
on which Hawikuh was situated, however, one village only was 
observable in the sixteenth century. That village was Hawi- 
kuh, and the massive walls of the ruined adobe church erected 
in the seventeenth century still rise above the plain. T'kanawe § 
(a triple pueblo of which Eechipauan formed a part), on the 

*Tlie Postrerade S'wola (1510) says tlie largest village of the province "may have 
about 200 houses, and two others about 200, and the others somewhere between 60 or 50 
and 30." According to Vetancurt, Halona and Hawilcuh were the largest villages a few 
years before the revolt of 1680, with 1,500 and " more than 1,000 " inhabitants respectively. 
In Coronado's time Matsaki was regarded as the largest of the Cibolan pueblos, but it 
had degenerated during the following eighty or ninety years. Accepting the figures of 
the I'ostrera, that three villages (Halona, Hawikuh, and Matsaki) had 200 houses each, 
the largest of the remaining four pueblos could not have exceeded 60 houses, or about 
250 inhabitants, while the smallest of the seven cities had but 30 houses with about 150 
occupants. The population of K'iakima therefore must have been between 150 and 
250, a figure far below what would have been regarded a fair comparison with the Mex- 
ican capital. 

tit will be remembered that the Quivira delusion was due to the misrepresentations 
of the Indian Bigotes. 

X And also Pinawa if that village was one of the group. 

'i T'kanawe is the " Canabi " ot ( >nate ( 1598), and was one of the Cibolan cities. It con- 
tains the standing walls of a stone church which in all probability was never finished 
or used. The village is not mentioned by Vetancurt, consequently it appears to have 
been abandoned between 1629 and 1670, the latter being the approximate date of the 
abandonment of Hawikuh. 



8 

mesa to the southeastward, the nearest settlement to Hawikuh 
when that village was inhabited, could be seen neither from the 
valley below nor from the adjacent heights. Hawikuh, there- 
fore, necessarily must have been " the village now in view." 

Mr. Bandelier's belief that K'iakima was discovered by Niza 
is, it appears, based mainly on tradition. Concerning the visit 
of Estevan to the Zufiis, two accounts have been recorded by Mr. 
Gushing,* each of which places the scene of the killing at K'ia- 
kima. The text of one of these stories is approximately accu- 
rate; the other maintains that the wise men of the Ka-ka order 
took Estevan " out of the pueblo during the nightf and gave 
him a powerful kick that sped him through the air back to the 
south, whence he had come." A tradition so contorted by its 
authors that it bears but little semblance of its original form is 
worthy of serious consideration only in so far as it aids in estab- 
lishing the maximum age at which the authenticity of Zuni 
tradition ceases. 

Regarding the seven cities of Cibola, also, tradition is seriously 
lacking. The early Spanish names of five of the towns are : 
Mayaquia (Matsaki), Coquimo (K'iakima), Aquico (Hawikuh), 
Canabi (T'kanawe or K'ianawe), and Alona (Halona). Thus 
far the identification is simple ; but neither Mr. Bandelier nor 
Mr. Cushing has been able to identify satisfactorily the Aquinsa;|: 
mentioned by Oiiate in 1598, while the Zuiii name of the seventh 
pueblo (the Spanish equivalent of which was never recorded) 
will in all probability never be definitely determined. § It is 
(juite apparent, then, that without the aid of Spanish records 
we would not know the names of any of the pueblos occupied 
by the Zuiiis three centuries and a half ago (with the possible 
exception of Halona, the most recently occupied of the group), 
for the only names which the Indians are now able to give are 
those wbich bear close resemblance to the names preserved in 
Spanish records. Where these fail native tradition also fails. 

* Arcli. Inst. PHpers, op. eit., p. 154. 

+ According to all the Spanish accounts, Estevan was killed in the morning while at- 
tempting to escape. 

I Mr. Bandelier suggests Apinawa (= Pinawa) ; Mr. Cushing gives Ketehina with a 
query, and Kwakina in different writings. See Jour. Am. Eth. and Arch., vol. iii; 
Compte Rendu CoiiKr^s Int. des Amer., 7me. sess. (18.^8), Berlin, 1890; The Millstone, 
Indianapolis, April, 1884, p. 55 

g Mr. Cushing has suggested both Hampassawan and Pinawa, the latter being Bande- 
lier's Aquinsa. Bandolier (Co»i^i/)u/ioHs, op cit., p. 171) mentions Ketchipauan doubt- 
fully in connfction with the seventh village. 



In further illustration of the untrustworthiness of Zuni tradi- 
tion, especially when dating from such a remote period as the 
one referred to, it may be remarked that the Messrs. Mindeleff, 
while endeavoring to gather from the Zunis traditional data re- 
garding the coming of Coronado for use in connection with their 
archeologic studies in Zuni and Tusayan, found that they were 
acquainted only with the Spanish version, and uttered state- 
ments concerning incidents of the march that Indians could 
have learned only from recent contact with whites acquainted 
with the Spanish history of the discovery. Again, the Zuiiis 
claim to have preserved a tradition of a visit to them by Cabeza 
de Vaca before the " Black Mexican " came.* That such a story 
could have gained foothold in Zuni only in recent years scarcely 
needs proof, for the question arose but twenty-five years ago, and 
since 1886 Bandelier has repeatedly and incontrovertiljly pn)ven 
that Vaca's route lay hundreds of miles away. 

In view, then, of the untrustworthiness of Zuni tradition, as 
above exemplified, can the persistent myth of the natives that 
Klakima was the pueblo where Estevan met death stand in the 
way of such overpowering testimony to the contrary? Should 
the story of the negro who by a powerful kick was sped through 
the air back whence he had come — ^^a story suspended by a single 
strand of truth — take precedence as historical evidence over the 
statement of Jaramillo, who visited Hawikuh with Coronado 
only a year later and specifically recorded that " here was where 
they killed Estevanillo," or of the declaration in 162G of Fray 
Geronimo de Zarate Salmeron, who " mentions Hawikuh posi- 
tively as the Civola of Pirty Marcos and of Coronado " f f It is true 
Jaramillo wrote these words some years afterward ; but would 
he have been more likely to err in such an important matter 
than would the unwritten siory of the natives ? Furthermore, 
Jaramillo is supported by Castaheda, who, in Mr. Bandelier's 
language, " makes no direct mention of the locality, but it is 
plain that he labors under the same impression." Such an im- 
portant event in history as the scene of the murder of the actual 
discoverer of the " new country," the strange forerunner of civili- 
zation in the Southwest, the first black man the Indians had ever 
seen, could not have been forgotten in a year. Coronado, writing 

* Haynes, op. eit., p. 48a. 

t Bandelier, Contributions, op. eit., p. 171, 



10 

from Haivikuh in 1540, says : " The death of the negro is i)erfectly 
certain, because many of the things which he wore have been 
found, and the Indians say that they killed him here." 

In 1893 Mr. Bandelier's Gilded Man appeared. Most unfortu- 
nately for the author, Avho was in South America at the time of 
its publication, the editing of the volume and the revision of the 
proofs were left to others, whose knowledge of Southwestern 
history was so scant that many errors were suffered to creep in. 
Among these is a statement, contradictory of all the evidence 
presented in Bandelier's previous writings, to the effect that 
Coronado did not go to Hawikuh, " fifteen miles southwest of 
Zufii,the village nearest to him,* but to '• Oa-quima ' [K'iakima], 
because [in the words of Jaramillo] the negro toas killed there.'''' I 
cannot believe that Mr. Bandelier would have allowed this state- 
ment to remain, since he has always declined as evidence the 
assertiom of Jaramillo f concerning the village at which the 
negro was killed, on the ground that it was written years after 
his visit. If Mr. Bandelier's statement is intentional, then it 
further substantiates the evidence which I have above presented, 
that Hawikuh was the pueblo at which Estevan was killed, as 
the Ti^aslado de las Nuevas (Col. Doc. Indiasj xix, p. 529) will 
attest. This document maintains that on the 19th day of July 
(1540) Coronado went '" four leagues J from this city [Granada] 
to see a rock where they told him that the Indians of this prov- 
ince had a stronghold, and he returned the same day." That 
the stronghold is the great rock mesa of Taaiyalone, or Thunder 
mountain, on a knoll at the base of which stood K'iakima, needs 
no proof. It is the only impregnable height in the vicinity 
suitable for habitation, contains on its summit the ruins of de- 
fensive structures, is well known through direct statements in 
Spanish history under the name of the "Rock of K'iakima" as 
a place of refuge when the inhabitants of Cibola-Zufii Ib'd fioin 
their villages in the valley in fear of Spanish or Indian invaders, 
and, as approximately stated by the Traslado, is situated four 

* Note the statement "the village nearest to him," wliinli niso must have boon the 
village nearest to Niza and Est6van. 

t " En pocos dias do camino llegaron i\ la primeia pol>lacion du Uibola, adoude mata- 
ron i\ Estevanico de Orantes." — Herrera, dec VI, lib. ix, cap. xi, p. 205. Y aqui mataron 
& Estebanillo el Negro, que habia venido con Dorantes, de la Florida, y volvia con fray 
MArcos de Ni'in." —Jaramillo Relacion, in Vol. Doc. de Indias, XIV, p. SOS. 

I The distances gi vun are .soiinnvliat underestimated. 



11 

or five leagues from Granada or Hawikuh — not K'iakiiiui, which 
stood at its base. 

Again, in the Gilded Man. (p. 160), alluding to the mesas south- 
ward from Thunder mountain, from which, as Mr. Bandelier be- 
lieves, Niza first caught sight of Cibola, occurs the reference: 
" There, too, the remains of a wooden cross were visible till a few 
years ago. It has been supposed that this was the cross which 
the monk erected ; considering the dry atmosphere of the re- 
gion, the supposition, even if it is not probable, is not to be 
wholly rejected." 

My personal regard for the author refuses to make me be- 
lieve that this statement is made seriously.* The fact that the 
friar was possessed of " more fright than food," and had been 
reduced to the extreme of necessity, precludes the thought that 
he remained on the spot longer than was necessary to break the 
limbs of a tree with which to form a cross f (its arms, in all 
probability, being secured by a shred of his cassock), and to 
heap around its base a pile of stones. Could even a more stable 
structure have stood the snows of three hundred and fifty Zuni 
winters? If a cross stood on this spot in recent times, we may 
more safely attribute its erection to the death by the wayside of 
some unfortunate Mexican, for such is the custom of his people. 

That HaAvikuh was the village first seen by Estevan, who there 
met death ; that it was the '" city of Cibola " rising from the plain 
which Niza and his Piman guides viewed from the southern 
heights in 1539, and that it was the pueblo which Coronado 
stormed in the summer of the following year, seems indisputable. 

* It will be observed that Mr. Bandelier does not claim that he saw the cross, nor does 
he give the source of information. As no mention is made of it in any of his previous 
writings, 1 am inclined to believe that the reference is the work of the editor. 

t " With the aid of the Indians, I erected on the spot a great heap of stones and placed 
on top a small cross, not having the tools necessary for making a larger one." (Niza, 
quoted by Bandelier: Documentary History, op. cit., p. 17.) 



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